Genesis
by Sarah LoTuS
Summary: [On hold for the foreseeable future.] Marcus gets revived on Minbar, three years after his death. Then some stuff happens. I could tell you, but that’s what the story’s for. Work In Progress! PG13 for now, may become R later.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Genesis  
  
AU: this goes skew-wiff after the end of season 5, (but before SIL), with one minor aberration before that.  
  
Marcus gets revived on Minbar, three years after his death. Then some stuff happens. I could tell you, but that's what the story's for.  
  
AN: I'm too lazy to go into the mechanics of how they revived Marcus. I'm sure much better writers than me have explained it in interesting ways, but that isn't really what this is about. So we enter after whatever-it-is has been done.  
  
~~~~~~ Genesis ~~~~~~  
  
Marcus drifted towards consciousness slowly. He felt... sore. And tired-- the kind of bone-seeping tiredness of one who has slept too long and is over-rested.  
  
"Is he coming around?" The voice was familiar, and speaking Minbari. There was something wrong with that, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He forced his eyes open.  
  
"Marcus," she breathed, and he felt her squeeze his hand.  
  
He tried to blink the fuzziness in his eyes away to bring her face into focus, although he didn't need to. He'd recognised her voice. "Susan," he croaked.  
  
"Don't try to talk, Marcus," she admonished him.  
  
He looked instead. His vision was still blurred, but he could see enough to note the Minbari style of her clothing. And the ranger pin. The wrongness nagged at him some more. He was supposed to be somewhere else, wasn't he? Somewhere...  
  
He started to lift his hand to rub his eyes, but found it was too heavy. Why was he so weak? Where was he?  
  
Someone else was there; a Minbari. She brought a glass of water to his lips, and lifted his head to help him sip. The cool water revived his higher brain functions somewhat, enough for him to realise that he should probably be on Babylon 5, and he wasn't. He tried his voice again. "Where...?"  
  
"You're on Minbar," Susan told him. "Tuzanor."  
  
"He needs to sleep now, to regain his strength," the Minbari warned.  
  
Susan was nodding. "OK, if it's what he needs. But you'll let me know when he wakes up again?" She was speaking Minbari again. But that was... wrong. He didn't get a chance to figure out why, however, as the drug took effect and consciousness started to slip away again.  
  
"I'll be here when you wake up," she assured him. And then, though he wasn't sure if it was the end of waking or the beginning of dreaming, she leaned forward and kissed his forehead.  
  
* * *  
  
When he awoke, she was there, as promised. "How do you feel?" she asked.  
  
"Like I've been digested by a pak'ma'ra. Twice."  
  
She laughed. He thought it was a beautiful sound.  
  
He felt much more alert this time around, and there were questions insisting to be answered. "It worked," he breathed, remembering her injury, his frantic flight to Babylon 5, and the machine. Then darkness. "Why am I alive?" he asked.  
  
Were they tears in her eyes? He couldn't trust his sight.  
  
"We brought you back," she told him. "It's a long story, and it can wait." She narrowed her eyes. "You and I have a lot to resolve, but that can wait, too."  
  
He flinched a little. Not something he was overly looking forward to--he had a feeling she'd be merciless. Then a thought occurred to him. "How long has it been?"  
  
"Too long." She sidestepped the question.  
  
He wouldn't be diverted, however. "How long?"  
  
She sighed. "Three years."  
  
He closed his eyes, exhaling. "You'll fill me in on what I missed?" he asked.   
  
"When I think you're up to it," she replied.   
  
"Well, obviously the end of the world was averted, that's always a plus..."   
  
She laughed again, and squeezed his hand warmly. She was not the same person anymore, he reflected. She seemed... less restrained, in a way. And of course there were the physical changes; the ranger uniform, and the fact that she now spoke Minbari. The deeper changes he would have to learn on his own, until she chose to share them with him.   
  
He pestered her about recent events until she relented; giving him a summarised history of the people he'd known. He was genuinely shocked to hear about Lennier, in particular. Unrequited love was something he was uncommonly familiar with, after all.   
  
The way she looked at him now, however, made it feel as if even that might have changed.  
  
* * * 


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: Babylon 5 is not mine. The song lyrics are not mine either, they're from "I Can't Ever Get Enough of You", by Darren Hayes.  
  
Genesis, Part Two  
  
When she left the medical facility that evening, Susan felt exhausted. She'd fielded his questions carefully, not sure what she should tell him, and when. Some things would have to wait, and others she was going to have to well and truly psyche herself up for.  
  
Oh, she was glad to have him back--more than glad; she wanted to cry out with joy. But it just made everything so complicated. When he'd first said her name, part her had wanted to grab ahold of him and hang on for dear life. The other part had wanted to catch the next transport out to the rim worlds and disappear.  
  
She had to stop in to visit John and Delenn before heading to her own quarters. She was later than she'd expected to be, but she knew they would understand. Hell, they were in a unique position, being two of the very few people who knew what she feared.  
  
* * *  
  
~~ Now I know that in the past I've been much too keen  
  
But your eyes are the kindest that I've ever seen  
  
I guess there are some things you just know  
  
There's a voice inside telling me to hold on  
  
And never let you go ~~  
  
His recovery was not as quick as he wanted it to be, that was certain. The Minbari doctor who had effected his 'resurrection' was called Hedronn, which meant "purposeful expeditionary". She was purposeful, all right; after a few days of her strict regime he decided he really missed Stephen Franklin. She wouldn't even let him try to stand until the third day of his convalescence.  
  
Susan visited him every day, and continued her tutorial on the changed state of the universe. The changed state of Susan Ivanova remained somewhat more of a mystery, however. She told him many things, but nothing of real consequence. She spoke at length about her former command and about her ranger training, told him of her past, but not of her present. She most definitely did not speak of feelings, hers or his; and although he desperately wanted to know where they stood, he was too afraid to push the matter. He could not reconcile the intimacy of her manner with the guardedness of her speech, but he was reassured, all the same. She would speak when she was ready.  
  
Although she never stayed more than two hours, she always seemed reluctant to leave. He never asked her to stay longer either, although he wanted to. They seemed to be walking a tightrope between the need to stay distant and the need to be together.  
  
At times he saw flashes of the Susan he remembered; for instance, when he pushed her irritation just a bit too far, and she'd responded with a threat to space him. Although she *was* smiling when she said it.  
  
Other times, she surprised him completely. Like the way she constantly touched him; holding his hand, smoothing his hair. And when she left, it was always with a kiss. The first time he'd been drifting off to sleep, and he was sure she didn't think he'd noticed. The second time she'd kissed her hand and touched it to his cheek. On the third day, under Hedronn's watchful eye, she helped him to stand. He managed a few tentative steps before the stiffness got the better of him and his knees gave way, but she kept him from falling, her arms so tight about him that he felt giddy. When she left that day, he took her hand and pressed it to his lips.  
  
He regretted his impulse when she looked flustered and hastened her exit with a flimsy excuse.  
  
He hoped he was reading her right, and it wasn't merely a mistaken sense of indebtedness that kept her at his side. He could bear anything but that.  
  
* * * 


End file.
